In contrast to his
later letter to Prime Minister Herbert Asquith (which eventually
was smuggled into Britain to evade censorship: the letter was highly
critical of the Allied campaign), Ashmead-Bartlett's report on Sari Bair
exuded a sense of exhilaration.

The Battle of Sari Bair
by Journalist Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett

The great battle, the
greatest fought on the Gallipoli Peninsula, closed on the evening of August
10th.

Both armies then busily
engaged in consolidating their new positions, in taking stock of gains and
losses, replenishing their ammunition and munitions, and reorganizing the
divisions, brigades, and battalions which of necessity became intermingled
in this rugged, mountainous country.

I have visited the ground
over which the Anzac corps advanced in its desperate efforts, extending over
four consecutive days, to reach the crest of Sari Bair, commanding the ridge
overlooking the Dardanelles.

The New Zealand infantry,
the Gurkhas, and some other battalions almost reached the objective, but
were unable, through no fault of their own, to hold their position. A
battalion of Gurkhas actually reached the crest of the plateau, but the
Turks, taking advantage of the confusion, counter-attacked in great force,
and the gallant men from the hills were driven from the crest to the lower
spurs beneath.

It was a bitter
disappointment to have to relinquish the crest when it almost seemed to be
within their grasp after so many months, but there was no alternative.
The Anzac corps fought like lions and accomplished a feat of arms in
climbing these heights almost without a parallel. All through,
however, they were handicapped by the failure of the corps to make good its
positions on the Anafarta hills, further north, and thus check the enemy's
shell fire.

When all the details of
these complicated arrangements are collected and sifted, they will form one
of the most fascinating pages of the history of the whole war. It was
a combat of giants in a giant country, and if one point stands out more than
another it is the marvellous hardihood, tenacity, and reckless courage shown
by the Australians and New Zealanders.

The main force debouched
from the Anzac position in Lone Pine - a position situated on a plateau 400
feet high, southeast of the Anzac lines. The Australians rushed
forward to the assault with the fury of fanatics, taking little heed of the
tremendous shrapnel fire and enfilading rifle fire.

On reaching the trenches
the great difficulty was to force a way in, for the cover was so strong and
heavy it had to be torn away by main force. Groups of men effected
entrances at various points and jumped in on top of the Turks, who fought
furiously, caught as they were, in a trap.

Some surrendered, but the
majority chose to die fighting. In every trench and sap and dugout
desperate hand-to-hand fighting took place, four lines of trenches being
captured in succession, and fresh infantry being poured in as the advancing
lines were thinned by losses.

In this fighting bombs
played the most important role, and it was only by keeping up and increasing
the supply that the Australians were able to hold the position after it had
been won. The Turks massed their force, and for three nights and days
made desperate counter-attacks, frequently retaking sections of the line,
only to be driven out again.

In this extraordinary
struggle, which took place almost under ground, both sides fought with utter
disregard of life. The wounded and dead choked the trenches almost to
the top, but the survivors carried on the fight over heaps of bodies.
In spite of immense reinforcements, with most determined courage the
Australians held the ground thus won, and finally the Turks wearied of the
struggle.

The trenches were now
merely battered shambles, and the task of removing the dead and wounded took
days to accomplish. The bodies of 1,000 Turks and Colonials were
removed from the trenches alone, while hundreds of others lie outside.
The total Turkish losses in this section alone are estimated at 5,000,
chiefly incurred in furious counterattacks, among which each bomb burst with
fearful effect.

The capture of Lone Pine is
the most desperate hand-to-hand fight that has taken place on the peninsula,
but this was but a diversion and preliminary to the main movement northward,
which began the same evening tinder cover of darkness.

No finer feat has been
accomplished in the course of the war than the manner in which the troops
destined for the main movement against Sari Bair Ridge were deployed for the
attack. Millions of rounds of ammunition and thousands of shells were
successfully concentrated at advanced posts without the enemy becoming aware
of the movement. Neither did he know of the strong reinforcements
which had reached the Australian corps. All this required the utmost
skill, and was successfully kept a profound secret.

It was at 9 p.m., August
6th, when the force crept forward from the outposts. For nights past
the navy had thrown searchlights on this and other lower positions and had
bombarded them at frequent intervals. This procedure was not departed
from on the 6th, and the Turks had no suspicion of the coming attack.
When the lights were switched on to another position the Australians dashed
forward and speedily captured the positions in succession, and throughout
the night Bauchop's Hill and Big and Little Table Tops were occupied.

By the morning of the 7th
our whole force was holding the front and slowly moving toward the main Sari
Bair position in face of great difficulties, harassed by the enemy's snipers
and checked by the difficulties of the ground and the scarcity of water.
It was decided to postpone a further advance until nightfall. The
forces were reorganized into three columns.

For the final assault on
Chunuk Bair, which was timed to begin at dawn on August 9th, large reserves
from another division were thrown into the firing line to assist the New
Zealand and Indian infantry, and the men, as far as possible, rested through
the day and the early part of the night.

The advance on the morning
of the 9th was preceded by a heavy bombardment of Chunuk Bair and Q Hill by
the naval and land guns. The advance of No. 3 column was delayed by
the broken nature of the ground and the enemy's resistance.

Meanwhile the Gurkhas
charged gallantly up the slope of Sari Bair, and actually succeeded in
reaching the heights on the neck between Chunuk Bair and Q Hill. It
was from here that they looked down on the Dardanelles, but were
unfortunately unable to hold the position in face of violent counter-attacks
and heavy shell fire.

During this time the Turks
counter-attacked the left column in great strength, and the column was
compelled to withdraw to the lower slopes of Sari Bair.

Meantime throughout the day
and night the New Zealanders succeeded in maintaining their hold on Chunuk
Bair, although the men were thoroughly exhausted. During the night of
the 9th the exhausted New Zealanders were relieved by two other regiments.
At dawn the Tenth Regiment of the Turks, which had been strongly reinforced,
made a desperate assault on our lines from Q Hill and Chunuk Bair.

To the strength of a
division, in successive lines, they hurled themselves, quite regardless of
their lives, on the two regiments which, after desperate resistance, were
driven from their position by artillery fire and sheer weight of numbers
further down the slopes of Chunuk Bair.

Following up their success,
the Turks charged right over the crest and endeavoured to gain the great
gully south of Rhododendron Ridge, evidently with the intention of forcing
their way between our lines and the Anzac position. But they had
reckoned without our artillery and ships' guns. This great charge of
four successive lines of infantry in close formation was plainly visible to
our warships and all our batteries on land.

In this section the Turks
were caught in a trap. The momentum of their charge down hill
prevented them from recoiling in time, and they were swept away by hundreds
in a terrific storm of high explosive shrapnel, and common shells from the
ships' guns and our howitzers and field pieces.

As the shells from the
ships exploded, huge chunks of soil were thrown into the air, amid which you
saw human bodies hurled aloft and then chucked to earth or thrown bodily
into deep ravines. But even this concentrated artillery fire might not
have checked the Turkish advance, unless it had been assisted by the
concentrated fire of ten machine guns at short range. For half an hour
they maintained a rapid fire until the guns smoked with heat.

During the whole of this
time the Turks were pouring across the front in dense columns, attempting to
attack our men. Hardly a Turk got back to the hill. Their lines
got mixed up in a wedge as those in front tried to retire while others
pressed them from the rear. Some fled back over the crest, seeking to
regain their trenches; others dashed downward to the ravines. In a few
minutes the entire division had been broken up and the survivors scattered
everywhere.

If they succeeded in
driving us from the crest of Chunuk Bair, the Turks paid a terrible price
for their success. Thus closed, amid these bloodstained hills, the
most ferocious and sustained "soldiers' battle" since Inkerman.